[Richard]

Excellent thread with well executed installs.

I apologize for glomming onto this thread with a little tidbit. As we have traveled through Canada and now well into Alaska, I have leapfrogged with a late model high end coach with a fabulous aftermarket install. All Victron electronics, tons of solar, tons of lithium batteries, plus a pro install job on the wiring. There is a but. I first became aware of their problem 4 weeks ago when they were parked next to me and had all the door open with a fan during a heat wave in Canada. The problem was that the installer had installed a device similar to an auto transfer switch that combined legs 1 and 2 while on the 5kw Victron inverter. It conveniently allowed them to run the roof airs off the solar and batteries. Except it had failed, which interrupted ALL AC power in the coach. No pedestal, no generator, no inverter. I did a bit of trouble shooting to confirm what the lady already knew. I offered to wire around the smart phase selector (hint) switch but she declined saying she was going to get a new one.

They did, and it worked for one camping spot.

This week they were beside me again. Same story. NO power. Somewhat inconvenient since their heater fans run off AC, and they are losing the food in their fridge. This time she accepted my offer to wire around the failed device. That was a bit of a challenge, since there ain’t much in terms of electrical supplies in Healy AK. But ugly as it is, they have power.

My point is that it may be very tempting to employ such a strategy on any high end solar/lithium install. If you do, add some 50 amp plugs and receptacles to be able to manually bypass the switch in the case it fails. Failure interrupts all AC power. No bueno.